


More Than Just a Game

by mydnightashes



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Co-workers, Everyone Else is tired of these two, Fluff, Geonhak is Bad at Feelings, Geonhak is Whipped, M/M, Pining Geonhak, Seoho is dense, slight slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26580535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydnightashes/pseuds/mydnightashes
Summary: Geonhak doesn’t really know how their friendship had ended up to what it currently was. One day he had threatened to end Seoho’s life over a small fight they had in the office because he borrowed a ballpen from his desk, then the next day he felt his heart rate spike over Seoho tripping on his chair and painfully landing on his face.Five times Geonhak tried to confess to Seoho and the one time he gave up completely...only to have the tables turn on him.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Seoho
Comments: 28
Kudos: 119
Collections: WEUS Harvest Moon Fest





	More Than Just a Game

**Author's Note:**

> prompt 031: Five times...And one time...
> 
> This ended up WAY LONGER than I expected it to be, not going to lie but I really hope you enjoy it! For any references you don't understand, I'll put a guide at the end notes!

“I wonder what will happen in this year’s team building weekend?” A voice wondered loudly throughout the rows of cubicles. “Why are you even asking, we go to the same place every year.” Another voice replied from a different area. 

Geonhak sighed, shaking his head at the two. Hwanwoong and Dongju respectively were once again bored out of their minds, speaking and complaining to the rest of the office while waiting for the communal clock to hit 6 pm so they could all clock out for the night. 

Suddenly, an elbow knocked into his arm harshly, followed by the connecting body standing up and looking over the dividers at the rest of their co-workers. “Maybe we’ll go to a chicken farm this year. Geonhak would love to go there.” he stated confidently. 

Geonhak’s eyebrows raised in question. “Why would I want to go to a chicken farm?”

“So our baby chick Geonhak can finally go back home to his family, duh.” he cackled, running out of their shared space, as Geonhak lept out of his chair and chased after him. “You aren’t leaving this building without a beating, Lee Seoho!” he yelled back. 

Just as they started running, the clock hit 6 and everyone started packing up, leaving their desks and flooding the walkways out of their office area, effectively blocking Geonhak’s path.

Getting sidetracked by a mass of employees on their way to the elevators, Geonhak stopped and stepped aside, not wanting to be rude and get in their way, and lost track of Seoho in the flood of people. 

When he got out of the bunch and rushed back to his desk, Seoho’s desk was already void of most of his personal belongings. Confused, he looked up to see Seoho waving at him from the other side of the floor, near the elevators, grinning cheekily. 

Normally, he would attempt to continue the chase, but instead, Geonhak just groaned and lightly waved back in defeat, making Seoho tilt his head in slight confusion as he made his escape from a rough beating. 

“Rough day?” a teasing tone called out from behind him. 

He turned to find Youngjo grinning at the encounter. “You didn’t even _try_ to get to him this time” Geonhak shook his head, without much of an explanation, turning his eyes back to the elevators where Seoho had already descended through. “Ah, it’s nothing. I just didn’t feel like it tonight, I guess.” 

“You’ve been doing it a few times recently, you know? Laying off of him.” Geonhak couldn’t really disagree, so he just nodded and sighed.

“Are you and Seoho doing okay these days? He didn’t go too far this time with the teasing, did he?” Like always, there Youngjo was...doting and looking out for him like the older brother he never had. It was sweet. 

“No, no definitely not. Stuff like that is normal. I just wasn’t feeling it this evening.” 

With a click of his tongue, “Was it because you’ve been feeling something else recently?” Geonhak stilled, slowly looking back at Youngjo with wide eyes. “Something for Seoho maybe?” 

He groaned and punched Youngjo’s arm, receiving a laugh in return. “What? I totally support it, it was bound to happen eventually, he is your favorite person here after all.” 

“All six of us are best friends.” he interjects, talking about their little friend group at work, but Youngjo quickly slid in with another counterargument. “Yeah but you two sit beside each other, talk and argue everyday! You’re already an old married couple at this stage.”

All Geonhak could do was nod and make him stop before his ears started flushing red from embarrassment. “I know, I know, you can stop now, Youngjo.” He exhaled in relief, moving to pack up his things and head home. 

But while they waited for the elevator to reach their floor, Youngjo continued. “So when are you going to ask him out?”

“Never.” he speedily retaliated. “Not in a million years.”

“Don’t lie to me, you should ask him out, you have nothing to lose.”

“I’ll ask him when I’m ready to ask him.” he firmly stated, just to humor the man and to try and get him to stop asking about it. 

Of course, like anyone who found out their friend has a crush on someone...they never shut up about it. No matter how many times they were asked to stop.

“So, next week?”

“Youngjo.”

“How about tomorrow?”

“Youngjo.”

“Your ears are so red right now.” 

_Damnit._ “Please shut up. Kim Youngjo.”

“Never until you decide to ask him out!”

●●●

There was no doubt that Geonhak and Seoho were best friends.

Seoho had been working in the company for a few months prior to Geonhak’s arrival. He used to be alone at his own cubicle space with an empty desk by him, and he had mentioned that he did feel lonely in the area until Geonhak was assigned to be his cubicle partner. They’ve been somewhat inseparable ever since. 

Key word: _somewhat._

By being inseparable, their coworkers actually found the two of them constantly at each other’s throats, bickering over the most miniscule of things. It had become so common to hear some form of an argument at least once a day, that it turned into a standard routine the office just got used to.

When not working or arguing however, Geonhak surprisingly found that the two of them had shared more things in common than he expected. Their pickiness over the lunch foods served in the cafeteria, their need to go to the gym a few times a week just to stay in shape, and their love for video games above all things. 

After the discovery, the two would log-on to their servers every weekend to meet for many rounds of matches, races, or gun fights, depending on the game they would be playing for that night. The pair would stay up for hours talking about their time outside of work, but on weekends when they knew they had a tiring week, they would just stay quiet and enjoy each other’s presence through their headsets. If it wasn’t for the games, Geonhak would have guessed they wouldn’t be as close as they were.

It never really occurred to them to invite the rest of their friend group to their games. After weeks of just the two of them bonding over games, a silent agreement was formed that they would just keep their weekend activities to themselves.

To be honest, Geonhak would say that his colleagues were his best friends. A tight knit friend group, if he had to describe it. They all were pretty close, they shared a chat group, spent their breaks together, went out drinking, if time permitted, and even met up during the holidays for some group festivities and celebrations. 

But if he were to pick, Seoho was possibly his closest friend out of the five. Heck, probably even his closest friend in general. 

He was still close with the rest of them, he couldn’t escape Dongju’s biting, Hwanwoong and Keonhee’s yells and Youngjo’s doting, but despite the back and forth bickering and teasing, he really appreciated his friendship with Seoho the most, and he always covertly hoped that Seoho felt the same way. 

●

Skipping over a few years later, Geonhak doesn’t really know what happened to his friendship with Seoho and how it transpired to what it currently was. 

One day he had threatened to end Seoho’s life over a small fight they had in the office because Seoho ~~stole~~ borrowed a ballpen from his desk, despite having a million on his own─

(“I write better with the brand of pens you use!”

“Then buy your own! Stop stealing from me!”

“Wow, my cubicle buddy is so stingy, he won’t even lend me a ballpen. Wow, it’s the end of the world because your amazing friend and coworker borrowed something from your desk. Wow Kim Geonhak, such a cranky complainer you are indeed.”

“Wow Lee Seoho, I can’t believe you’re not running away or going back to work with that ballpen before I forcefully rip it away from you.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m sorry, thank you for the ballpen. I will return it at the end of the day, please don’t hit me.”)

─Then the next day he felt his heart rate rapidly increase after watching Seoho trip on the leg of his chair after a meeting, very ungracefully falling straight to the floor, and painfully landing onto his stomach and face.

He held his face down on the ground, in utter embarrassment for a while as the meeting room laughed at his clumsiness, Geonhak even laughing along at the humiliation of his friend. 

Walking back to their desks however, Geonhak found himself checking up on Seoho, brushing off dirt from the front of his dress shirt and tie while looking for any bruises on his hands. 

“You didn’t hurt yourself back there did you? Is your ankle okay? What about your nose, did it hit the ground when you landed?” he barrelled question after question, missing the knowing look Youngjo threw them as he walked by. 

Seoho chuckled and smiled, “I’m fine, don’t worry. You should be used to it by now, it always happens anyways.”

Geonhak shrugs, “Yeah, but I just don’t want you to get hurt when it happens again.” He gave Seoho one more lookover to make sure everything was in order and walked back over to his desk

“Yah!” The elder suddenly called out. He stopped, ignoring the way his heart skipped a beat at the voice calling for him. “What?”

“If you’re so concerned about me falling on my ass then maybe you should catch me before I land.” Seoho smirked, immediately followed up by a loud “OOOOOH.” coming from Hwanwoong and Dongju who were actively listening in to what was possibly the start of another argument. 

Geonhak turned back around with a smug grin, shrugging his shoulders. “And miss your priceless reaction whenever it happens? I’d let you fall every day instead. Heck, I could even accidentally push you down the stairs, who knows.”

The room erupted in laughter as the spectators watched Seoho’s face morph into shock, then confusion, then some semblance of anger, but soft at the same time. 

“I— You—You wouldn’t!”

Geonhak shrugged once more, and Seoho huffed, walking away towards the restroom in defeat. Geonhak laughed at his friend and willed his heart to _chill the fuck up_ as he walked back to his desk, getting back to work.

Love was a indeed strange emotion.

Just as he turned on his monitor, his phone lit up with a new notification of a message from Youngjo. _What does he want now?_

_[ “You know, bickering is probably the last thing I’d be doing to someone I wanted to ask out. Just a thought.” ]_

Geonhak immediately stood up and glared over the divider walls at Youngjo who was grinning from his desk. “No one asked you for your thoughts, Youngjo!” 

“I’m just saying you should go for it!”

He would. 

Eventually. 

**● 1** ●

~~Contrary to popular belief,~~ Geonhak was pretty terrible at...emotions. 

He wouldn’t call himself a private individual, it was more that he didn’t have that many juicy back stories to share unlike the rest of his friends. He never had a crazy college story like when Keonhee skinny dipped in the middle of the night (“Why would you even?” “I was YOUNG and STUPID!”), or a cool twin brother like Dongju, or even a wholesome high school romance like the rest of the boys did. 

Geonhak had pretty much been single his entire life, and he was _fine_ with living that life so far. 

Until he met Seoho. 

Dealing with his newfound feelings of affection for the elder was proving to be difficult for Geonhak, as his brain wanted to malfunction, his ears wanted to explode and his heart wanted to burst out of his chest at every interaction he had with the man who was not only his cubicle buddy but also his best friend. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about the elder, and he really just wanted one day of peace in his mind, so Youngjo had convinced him that dealing with his emotions _head on_ and asking Seoho out was the best way to work around the overwhelming crush he was having. 

“He is your best friend after all, what’s the worst thing that can happen?”

“I can think of _a lot_ of things that can happen to me, Youngjo. One involves him rejecting me so badly that he won’t want to be friends with me anymore.”

“...Okay you and I both know that’s a bit of a stretch, I mean we know he’s not straight, so he can’t pull the heterosexual card on you if ever he does reject you.”

Geonhak started at Youngjo with an unimpressed blank look on his face. _Really?_

“Just don’t do anything too complicated, man. You’re just asking him out.” Youngjo spoke as they rode up the elevator to their floor that morning. 

Geonhak groaned in frustration. “What if I screw it up?”

“All you literally have to say is “Seoho, will you go out with me? Easy peasy, you’ll be fine.” But Geonhak clearly wasn’t fine, because he knew that it was physically impossible for him to properly express these types of emotions for the first time without tripping over his words or forgetting his train of thought over how Seoho’s smile made his heart go _badump_. 

Youngjo patted Geonhak on the shoulder just as he settled into his desk, nervously waiting for his cubicle partner to arrive. “Please stop freaking out, you’ll be too obvious at this point.”

“I’m not freaking out, what are you talking about─”

“Wow, Seoho-ah, look at you!” A shriek cut their conversation off, prompting the two to turn in the direction of the commotion. “Oh my god, your hair! What did you do?” the voice continued. 

Geonhak’s eyes shifted around the room, looking for the topic of conversation, before resting on a head of dark red hair. 

“Woah…” 

His gaze moved down from his best friend’s new hair to his face, locking eyes with a bashful Seoho who sent him a small smile back, walking over to them. 

All thoughts of his previous conversation and plans with Youngjo completely fly out of the window.

He was stunning. Absolutely gorgeous as hell. 

Geonhak’s brain was malfunctioning all over again. 

He didn’t even notice Seoho entering their cubicle space until Youngjo greeted him with a warm compliment. “Yeah, I just felt like changing it up over the weekend, you know? Impulse decisions─”

“You lost a bet with your older sister didn’t you?” Youngjo prompted. Geonhak listened as Seoho reluctantly sighed. “...yes and now I’m stuck with this stupid look for the next few weeks.”

“Stupid?” Geonhak called out. “You look great.” he smiled. 

“What?”

“Your hair…” he nonchalantly pointed out, “It suits you really well.” 

Seoho looked taken aback, chuckling as he combed down the back of his hair. “No insult this morning? Not even a tomato reference or something?” he questioned, to which Geonhak shook his head, reaching over to adjust a few strands of red that weren’t in line with the part of his bangs. 

“I like it.” he softly stated. _I like you_.

The red head nodded, resting his bag onto his desk. “Thanks, Geonhak. It’s nothing really.”

“Oh it’s _nothing_ , Seoho?” Youngjo butted in, receiving a harsh smack in return. “Jeez, it’s just hair, Youngjo. It’ll fade eventually then I can dye it back or something.” he retorted, sitting in his seat and getting to work. Youngjo turned back to Geonhak again and mouthed “do it already” but the latter was still dealing with the malfunction in his brain over Seoho’s new look that he couldn’t really make out proper words at that time. 

Disappointed, Youngjo tossed his hands up in the air, as he walked back to his desk. _Coward_.

Sure, Geonhak had kinda flaked out of asking Seoho out. But to his credit, his new look had him distracted the entire day.

Seoho looked good. 

Like, _really good_. 

So good that he kinda blanked throughout the day, barely speaking to him at all and forgetting about asking him out completely. 

_Don’t worry, Hak. You didn’t completely flake out. You told him he looked good, that’s already a stark contrast from the normal bickering you do._ He repeated to himself over and over again. _You can always try again next time._

**● 2** ●

An advantage of liking a close friend is that you know most, if not all of their likes and dislikes. 

Geonhak knew that Seoho was one of the few people on their entire floor that doesn’t drink coffee in the morning. Or coffee in general. It was one of the things they shared in common, a hatred for bitter caffeine. 

“What if you got him something to drink in the morning?” 

Geonhak had called Dongju the night prior to ask him about what he did when he liked someone and wanted to ask them out, because a few weeks in, Geonhak still didn’t ask Seoho out, nor act on his emotions whatsoever. “Like you could grab him a coffee and casually ask him out when you hand it over to him.” 

“But he doesn’t even drink coffee, Dongju! Then what do I do? Plus I can’t just _speak_ to him like that, what if I get the timing wrong?”

“Just a drink in general, Geonhak. He’d appreciate anything as long as it was free.” Dongju loudly groaned over the phone, trying not to get frustrated over how utterly hopeless Geonhak was, having to entail the help of everyone else in their group over the simplest of tasks revolving around love. “You can just write your confession or something on the paper cup so he can see it when he takes a sip.”

He quickly stopped pacing his apartment at the idea. “Dongju, you’re a genius. Thank you!”

“Can you please repeat that in the middle of the board meeting tomorrow at work?”

“What?”

“Nothing, good night! See you tomorrow morning!”

●

On the way to work, he decided to stop by the cafe on the ground floor of their office building to get Seoho a drink as suggested. Since coffee was off the table, he ended up choosing a large fruit shake. He had to admit, it wasn’t the most traditional way of starting the morning in an office setting, but the drink had sugar, so it was some form of an energy boost, nonetheless. 

Once he received the drink, he had asked the barista if he could borrow the marker they used to write on the cups, and added a small ‘will you go out with me?’ right beside the logo, so Seoho wouldn’t miss it when Geonhak would give him the drink.

If he was being honest, it kinda felt a little lame to be confessing through cup messages, but he didn’t really feel like manning up and doing any confessing face to face just yet. Embarrassingly enough, even if they talked to each other every single day, a good handful of their out of work conversations happened when they were online, through their microphones, while they watched their characters on their screens fight it out. 

Geonhak knew how to make his heart rate go down easily in a work environment, but one non-work related discussion and he was a goner. Even in video calls, Geonhak could easily hide his flushed ears underneath his headphones whenever Seoho laughed at a joke or teased him over a loss, and Seoho wouldn’t be the wiser. 

Since he spent some time in the cafe, the familiar head of red was already poking up over the cubicle dividers, which meant that Seoho had arrived at his desk first, probably scrolling over some files on his computer. 

Geonhak took a deep breath, waking over to their area. Even from behind, Seoho looked as good as ever, hair neatly combed through, and his left hand twirling a pencil like it was nothing. 

“Hey, good morning.” He held up the shake in his hand, gesturing it over to the elder but quickly halted, seeing the hot beverage with the same cafe logo in Seoho’s hands as he turned to face him.

“Oh hey,” he paused to take a sip before continuing, Geonhak’s eyes widened in confusion. 

_He...already has a drink._ That never happened before, and Geonhak definitely would have noticed if he did. 

“I got myself some hot chocolate before coming up.” Seoho explained. “I thought that I kinda needed a little sugar boost since we have a bunch of meetings today.” 

He pointed at the shake in Geonhak’s hand, “You too?” The younger quickly turned it in his grasp to cover the note he added to its side, replying with a curt nod, scratching off his plans to give it to the elder completely. 

“Yeah...Long day ahead.” he mumbled back.

Satisfied, Seoho turned back around to get back to work without another word. 

Geonhak grunted, settling into his seat and placing the shake onto the desk. He then grabbed a marker and slashed out the message he had carefully written, making sure Seoho nor anyone else who passed by his desk could read it. 

Just like that, another planned confession fell into pieces.

 _Stupid timing, stupid fruit shake, stupid hot chocolate, stupid schedules._ Geonhak grumbled to himself, as he quickly sent a text message to Dongju before Seoho noticed anything off with his actions.

_Geonhak_

_[ It didn’t work. He brought his own drink in today and he assumed I got the shake for myself. ]_

_Dongju_

_[ Aww, that’s too bad. ]_

_[ Poor you. ]_

_[ Can you still say I’m a genius in the board meeting later? ]_

_[ Hello? ]_

_[ Stop sulking, I can feel your brooding from the other side of the floor ]_

_[ But for real, don’t feel down. You can always try again another time… ]_

_[ Yeah, I guess… ]_

For the next few moments, Geonhak just stared at the cup on his desk as it mocked his pitiful and failed attempt at a confession. He watched as the moisture droplets slowly ran down the walls of the cup, past the roughly crossed out lines of marker, all the way down until they formed a puddle of water on his desk. 

Maybe now was a good time for him to start questioning his feelings and life choices. 

**● 3** ●

Sometimes, Geonhak wondered how he became friends with the rest of the group in the first place. Sure, they were always buddy-buddy around the office, and they went out together at least once a month, but there were certain times that he would question their entire friendship as a whole. 

Today was one of those times. 

“Why the heck are you guys going out to get _salads_?” Geonhak gasped after Keonhee and Youngjo popped over to his cubicle to invite him and Seoho to go out to have lunch with the rest of the group. 

“They’re not salads, Geonhak, they sell veggie wraps, but you can add chicken or other protein to them, if you wanted to.”

“Okay, let me repeat for Geonhak then, why are you going out to buy _vegetables_ for lunch?” Seoho interjected, scrunching up his nose in disgust. “Ew.” _Disgusting indeed_ , Geonhak agreed. 

Keonhee sighed, “It’s this new restaurant that just opened and Hwanwoong wanted to check it out.” Youngjo continued, “We all agreed since he’s offering to pay.”

Seoho put a hand up to stop them. “As much as I love free food, I’ll pass on the veggie train, thank you very much. I still have a lot of work to get done here so I don’t need to do papers over the weekend.” Geonhak nodded in agreement. “Same, I’ll just stay here.”

The eldest of the group quickly shot Geonhak a knowing look, “Suit yourself.” 

In addition, he playfully mouthed a “shoot your shot” very obviously to the latter while barely trying to cover his lips from Seoho’s gaze. Sending him back a harsh glare, Geonhak shooed them off, leaving himself and Seoho now alone on their floor, while everyone else was on their lunch break.

Once the sounds of the elevator doors closing echoed throughout the room, the red head scoffed in disbelief, “Can you believe them? Going out to buy salads? How are we even friends with monsters like them?”

Geonhak laughed, leaning back in his chair. “Beats me. They always were the ones who wanted to go out and follow the trends anyways.” Seoho agreed, turning back to his desk and getting back to work. 

Perhaps they may have been exaggerating the situation a little bit. The two of them were known to be the pickier of eaters in the group, so the rest understood them when they didn’t really want to go out with the rest for lunch. Occurrences like this were more common than one would think too. Normally, if it was just the two of them left on the floor, they would just go down to grab a bite to eat at the office cafeteria before the break ended, or even just buy some chips from the vending machine if they were really busy. 

However this time, after Geonhak had started on his quest to ask the elder out, he started feeling more nervous knowing that it was just him and Seoho left together. Because his brain was registering that it was break time, a.k.a. Non-work hours, he couldn’t stop his heart from starting to accelerate.

The immediate memory of Youngjo’s “shoot your shot” suddenly replayed in his brain. Over and over and over again like a scratched up CD that kept replaying the same 10 seconds of a video instead of continuing, no matter how many times he pressed pause and played again. 

_Damnit, okay._

_Hold on now._

_I’m getting there...give me a minute._

Youngjo was right though, Geonhak had to admit. After two failed attempts of not really confessing, but at least trying to ask Seoho out, they were alone with no one to bother them, and he really had no excuse to back out of it now. 

He was about to turn to the elder when a loud rumbling broke the silence. A few seconds passed then Geonhak burst into laughter, spinning around to see the culprit, ears starting to turn a pink hue pouting and grumbling at him to shut up. “I’m hungry okay shut up, I know.” 

_Go shoot it._

“Go out with me.” Geonhak suddenly proposed, as Seoho’s eyebrows raised in shock. “What—” The younger’s eyes widened in fear, and he quickly added, “To lunch! Let’s go get lunch.” _Phew._ “Oh.” The elder nodded in understanding. 

_And you just backtracked your own shot, Geonhak. Wow._ Youngjo would be disappointed in him. 

Anxiously waiting for this response, Geonhak watched Seoho look back at the emails he had yet to respond to. “I don’t know…I still have so much to do, Hak…” 

He tried nudging the other’s chair in an effort to convince him to go. “C’mon Seoho, I know you’re hungry.”

“Just leave me to starve in peace, you fool. You aren’t dragging me out of this chair for anything!” Seoho retaliated, holding onto the arms of his desk chair and hooking his feet under the chair’s legs, ready for a fight. 

Geonhak sighed, dragging a hand down his face in frustration. _This isn’t supposed to be that hard…_ “I’ll pay for you.”

“Oh?” Seoho paused, grip on his chair releasing. 

“Yeah.” He nodded, picking up his jacket and wallet and shutting off his monitor. “I’ll go ahead, if you really don’t want to join me. I’m hungry too anyways…” 

“No, of course I’ll go out and have lunch with you! Why didn’t you just say so?” he leaped out of his chair, grabbing his stuff and joining him on the walk to the elevator. 

Geonhak rolled his eyes in response, “You only go out to eat with me when I pay for us.” he teased, pretending that the elevator sign was suddenly so interesting to avoid making eye-contact with the elder.

He received a soft punch on the arm in response. “Hey you know that’s not true, I never let you eat alone, you know that.” Geonhak looked back at the red head who was rocking back and forth on his heels and smiling back at him. The smile directed at him was much softer than the face he made whenever he cackled at their antics at their desks, and Geonhak couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah, I know, I know. Let’s go before the lunch hour ends.”

The elevator ride was silent and peaceful as they slowly made their way down the building. 

“Where are you buying us lunch?” Seoho asked, and he casually responded with the name of a chicken restaurant a few streets away. “It’s the place that you mentioned one time was your favorite, but haven’t gone back to in a while. I just thought we could go visit it since you deserve a treat after a stressful morning.” 

After a few seconds, with Seoho not responding or even giving any acknowledgement, Geonhak turned to look at him in question. “You’re okay with that right?” He noted how the elder’s ears started to turn a bright shade of red, much darker than the pink earlier, as if attempting to match his hair color. “I didn’t bring enough money for meat, but maybe next week, if you wanted...”

 _Ding!_ The elevator sounded, doors opening to reveal a relatively empty lobby, not late enough yet for the workers to be coming back in for the afternoon. As if snapping out of a trance, Seoho shook his head vigorously. “You remembered that that was my favorite restaurant?” he then asked as they stepped out of the building. 

“Well yeah… You talked about it once when we were on call and you said you haven’t been back in a while, so why not?” 

It was a small detail Geonhak had subconsciously stored in the back of his mind. It was something Seoho had talked about while they were in the middle of a game of Super Smash Bros around the time when Geonhak first realized that _“oh, I like Seoho…”_ and his brain decided that it was an important tidbit to remember for the future. 

Lucky for him, he brought it up at the right moment. 

“Nothing…” Seoho’s ears were still red and he just smiled at the ground, making Geonhak a little nervous. 

_Did I do something wrong?_ He couldn’t help but wonder trying not to get worried as they made their way down to the joint, but Seoho wasn’t showing any signs of disturbance, so they continued on into the restaurant. 

When they were seated, only then did Seoho speak up again. “I never thought you listened to my rants about this place.” To which the younger raised his brows. 

“Oh why wouldn’t I? You said it was your favorite, so of course I’d remember.” He received a shrug in reply. “Well, thanks again…How about I pay for our meal next time we go out?”

Geonhak gulped. “We’re going out again?” _Going out? Again? Wait what, for a date?_

“Like for lunch, dummy.” _Oh. Yeah, lunch._

“We can escape Hwanwoong’s terrible restaurant choices again next week, I’ll buy us that meat you talked about.” Seoho chuckled, looking down at his phone while they waited for their chicken to come out. 

The voice of Youngjo then whispered into Geonhak’s ear once more of the mission he had failed to accomplish back at the office. _Shoot your shot._

He nodded back. “It’s a date.” He held his breath, trying not to pass out and just be as nonchalant as possible...as one _should_ act when asking someone they like out. 

The redhead looked up with a look, not of confusion but agreement. Shrugging, like the term “date” was nothing, he gave him a small couple of nods. “Yeah, sure.” 

Point to Geonhak, as he internally sighed in relief.

 _He probably still thought you meant it like a normal lunch out, friend date, Geonhak._ The man heard Youngjo’s scolding tone in his brain. _Go clarify what you meant you fool._

But he couldn’t. He was already pretty proud of himself that he was able to get Seoho out of the office for an actual break for once, and even if the elder had implied (A/N: no not really, Geonhak’s just dense) that it was just as close friends, Geonhak was glad to be able to help him wind down and relax nonetheless. 

He didn’t technically ask him out _like that_ , but he was pretty close. He’d give himself a few more months of pining before trying again, just so he can practice controlling his flushing, nerves and heart rate whenever it was just the two of them eating out together...as friends. 

“Hey, Hak?”

“Yeah?”

“I think Dongju might kill us if they’ll find out we’re getting meat next time…”

“So are you saying we should invite them for lunch with us instead of letting them choose a bad restaurant?”

“Maybe…” 

Point to Geonhak revoked. 

**● 4** ●

  
  


_“Yah, Son Dongju if you try to spray me in the crotch again you won’t have a cubicle partner when we get back to work next week!”_

_“No, Keonhee, YOU won’t have a cubicle partner next week if you keep getting shot and blowing our cover!”_

_“I can’t see when everyone is shooting water everywhere!”_

_“No injuries guys! We still have to go to work next week!”_

It was finally everyone’s favorite time of the year. Team building weekend. 

Everyone on their office floor rode on a bus and went out of town over the weekend to have fun at a nice little retreat house away from the city where the company hosts their team building activities every year. 

Hwanwoong and Dongju, the youngest in their group had been raving about it for the entire year, and who could blame them? Two days of having fun and playing around without having to worry about an amount being removed from their paychecks was the best thing a stressed out office worker could ever ask for. 

The highlight of the team building was always the intense water fight at the end of the second day. Everyone was divided into two teams and a huge shootout started in the afternoon, as they battled for long until only members of one team were left standing. 

However, every year to no failure, some individuals would go against each other, not even caring about what team they were on, in an every man for himself _war_ , essentially killing the pure intentions of the team building weekend just as it ended. 

The energy was wild, and everyone was out for blood while relieving themselves from all the stress accumulated over the year so far. Basically, everyone went batshit _insane_ during the battle. 

Since Geonhak had missed out on last year’s team building he was even more excited to finally get back on the field and blast his co-workers.

Until he was on the losing team. 

“Remind me again how can this build morale when we’re all trying to kill each other?” Geonhak yelled from behind a bush, while the yells of their co-workers echoed all around the garden they were playing on. Their group of six got separated into the two teams. He ended up with Youngjo and Seoho and he couldn’t be any more thankful that he wouldn’t have to shoot his crush in the face with water, making him angry. 

Youngjo turned to him and grinned, leaning back on the wall the bush was resting beside. “It’s a time for us to have fun and play around and we get _paid_ Geonhak. They’re paying us to blast each other with water, what else is there to question?”

He then looked at their stock of supplies, each of them had a handful of water balloons and two large water blasters each, already empty of water. “Damn, I need some more H2O…” Youngjo sighed, looking around for a faucet or refill station. 

“Seoho and I need some H2O too, we’re all out.” Geonhak pointed out, which made Seoho chuckle out of the blue. “What, what did I say?”

“Unless you want a trip to the hospital, you definitely do not want to use H2O2 in this water fight. Trust me, hydrogen peroxide isn’t something we can douse on people.” Geonhak scoffed. “Seriously? He just called water H2O and now we’re getting a science lecture?” 

Instead of replying, the two locked eyes, sending each other death stares for a few seconds until they all burst into laughter. Youngjo lightly nudged Geonhak with his leg, and he brushed him off, willing his ears to stop flushing. If Seoho asked about it, it was sunburn from the heat of when they started the fight. 

Geonhak was whipped. 

Over the noise, they could hear the yells of their friends, trying to find their hiding spot. They didn’t have much time until they were caught, and possibly ambushed. 

What then happened was probably the strangest and most stressful water fight tactic Geonhak had participated in yet. It was crazy, no doubt, but Seoho had suggested it after Youngjo found a long hose attached to a faucet that could make it all the way to the center of the warzone, and who was Geonhak to say no to Seoho, really?

The three screamed and ran into the battlefield, hose in Youngjo’s hand spraying out everyone on the grass while the two fired water at anyone rushing to get at Youngjo before someone found the faucet and turned it off. 

Everyone was taken aback and immediately eliminated from the fight once they got doused in the trio’s water attacks.

When the last person on the field left to the loser’s area, the trio breathed a sigh of relief. The entire siege happened so fast, and Geonhak was pretty sure they used up _too much_ water as the field was littered with puddles, on the brink of flooding. Yet he couldn’t believe Seoho’s plan actually worked. It was risky, but it definitely paid off, kinda making Geonhak fall even more for the elder now. 

“Nice one guys!” Youngjo cheered, dropping the hose in relief. 

Just as Geonhak turned to face him, a water balloon whizzed in between Geonhak and Seoho, missing Youngjo’s face by a few inches. 

“Damn, my aim is getting rusty.” Hwanwoong evilly taunted, Keonhee and Dongju following him with their water blasters pointed at the three. 

“Hey, Woong. Let’s talk this out okay?” Geonhak paled, as he slowly raised his blasters in the air, the two following along in silence. The rest of their officemates excitedly watched from the sidelines as it was now down to the last six people in the game. Three from each team.

Keonhee shook his head. “Can’t do that. There’s three of us, three of you, and Youngjo just lost the water supply to his hose.” 

“What if we formed a truce? We can share the trophy, and no one gets hurt.” Youngjo offered. 

”Seoho’s team won last year, and I am _not_ letting that happen again.” Hwanwoong spat back, to Geonhak’s surprise. They hadn’t talked about last year’s games so this was news.

Youngjo was about to interject again, but Dongju quickly sent a blast to his chest, throwing him out of the game. The five watched him walk away to the losers area, waving him goodbye. 

Now, Geonhak wasn’t an idiot. Or so he’d like to think. 

He would call himself a relatively level-headed individual who didn’t make a lot of impulsive decisions. Ask Seoho and he would agree that even in work, Geonhak was a tactical guy who didn’t do anything out of character or stupid. What he _would_ do though was absolutely _anything_ to win a game, and if it just so happened that he got to play hero for Seoho, then that was just a nice little bonus. 

Just before the trio turned back to face the two, Geonhak pulled Seoho behind him, blasting a stream of water at all three as fast as he could. Quickly responding, he was met with multiple blasts and water balloons all over him, effectively blocking Seoho from getting hit, but getting himself completely doused in the process. 

However, the damage had already been done. The trio was out before any of their blasts on him counted. Their teammates cheered as their team was declared the winners.

He had to admit, getting water balloons thrown at him hard enough to explode from a near distance was _painful._ Like, he was pretty certain that he was going to bruise all over that night, painful. But hearing Seoho’s laughter at their friend’s demise and the win of their team made it all worth it. 

As the five walked back to the losers area to join everyone else, Seoho stepped back, eyeing Geonhak up and down with a large grin on his face. “I can’t believe your ego is so big that you wanted to clench the final kill all for yourself.”

Geonhak stopped in his tracks. “Excuse me? I _saved_ your ass before they knocked both of us out of the fight.” he argued, stepping forward but then immediately slipping on a pile of mud, crashing to the ground and hitting his head with a loud _thud_. 

His head started throbbing from the impact but he could vaguely make out the sound of his friends’ voices calling out for him in concern. “Geonhak!” But then everything went silent as Geonhak made out the blurry image of Seoho looking down at him, his blaster aimed out to his side where the rest of the team stood frozen, and a water balloon in the other hand ready to strike him. 

_What the hell is going on?_

“Did you really just try to shoot off everyone in the opposite team to make sure I didn’t get hit?” Now Geonhak was even more confused, hadn’t they won already? “...uhhh wasn’t that the plan?” and Seoho just laughed at him like a maniac, lowering his face closer to Geonhak’s. 

It may have been from the impact on the ground or the adrenaline wearing off and fatigue finally getting to him to not be worrying for his life at the time but all he could think about as a water balloon was very close to striking him out of existence was how handsome Seoho looked under the light of the sun with water dripping off of his cheeks, smiling widely at him. 

If his ears weren’t red back at their hideout, then they were definitely flushing now. 

“Do you want to know how I actually won last year’s water fight?”

“Yah, just remember you’ll need to find a new cubicle buddy if I die.” he groaned and as quickly as everyone thought Seoho had turned on his teammate, the elder had pulled Geonhak off the ground, blaster tucked under his armpit.

He could hear the sighs of relief from everyone as Seoho laughed again, reaching over to pat the back of Geonhak’s head, the part that hit the ground on his fall. “You okay? I'm not going to shoot you while you may be hurt. What kind of a friend would I be?”

_Right, a friend. They were just friends._

Now he may have still been doozy from the fall but Geonhak suddenly thought that maybe then was a good time to confess to him and ask him out. The game was over, their team won, and they had another rest day once they got back to the city.. If he accepted the confession, they could go out on a date, but if not then Geonhak had a day for himself to cry and agonize before going back to work. 

He turned to face the elder, “I was wondering...When we get back to the city, if you would—” but before he popped the question, he was cut off by a water blast to his face. 

_What the hell._

He swiped the water off his face, spitting whatever got into his mouth. “W-what the—” but he was cut off again by a water balloon hitting him square on the chest, exploding on impact and sending him a few steps back, almost falling again, if it wasn’t for his three friends steadying him up. 

Suddenly, a whistle rang through the air, officially calling the game over. “Last man standing, Lee Seoho, our back-to-back ultimate champion!”

“SUCK IT HWANWOONG, TWO YEARS IN A ROW BABY!” Seoho cheered, running around the field as Hwanwoong angrily left Geonhak’s side to chase him with another water balloon. Geonhak just stood in shock for a few moments, trying to figure out what had just happened. 

As Youngjo walked over to them, chuckling at his perplexed face, Dongju sighed, poking Geonhak’s arm. “Well, you lost.” 

“Your little heroic move was cute though,” Keonhee cooed, adjusting Geonhak’s mud spotted bangs from sticking to his forehead. “Too bad he’s just as desperate for a win as Hwanwoong is…He betrayed Hwanwoong last year by doing the same thing.”

“I told you it was every man for himself in the water fight…” Youngjo sighed, patting him on the shoulders in consolation. “You weren’t listening to me.” 

Dongju scoffed, “He was too busy staring at Seoho’s face while he was on the ground to even think of a betrayal.” Geonhak couldn’t even bring himself to disagree, watching Seoho and Hwanwoong run around, jumping through puddles and laughing their heads off.

“I don’t even think he’s mad in the slightest.”

“Definitely not. He’s not even fuming, look at him.”

Again, Geonhak was whipped. 

●

That night, on the ride back to the city, Geonhak chose to sit at the front of the bus, so he could get some rest after a tiresome day, pulling his earphones on to listen to some music to drown out the sound of everyone else’s conversations. 

Sensing Seoho’s presence a few bodies behind him as they boarded the bus, Youngjo quickly made his way over to sit beside Geonhak before anyone else could. He knew that Seoho and Geonhak always sat next to each other on trips, so he wanted to test a theory he had developed after observing the two of them over the past few weeks. 

The group knew that the two of them were going out for lunch more often, without the rest of them, and everytime they came back, Seoho seemed particularly cheerier than he would be normally after taking a break.

He watched the redhead climb up, quickly looking around the bus for a particular seat, before pausing to look at Geonhak who had his eyes closed and was leaning on the window. 

He made his way down the aisle only to stop when he found Youngjo already seated beside Geonhak. “I— You—The seat...” he stuttered, and the elder tried to stop himself from chuckling. 

“Sorry, were you going to sit here? I just needed to talk to Geonhak about something but I think he fell asleep—” Seoho quickly shook his head in reply, “No, no, no, you can stay there. It’s nothing anyways.” 

“Sit with us Seoho!” the voices of Dongju and Keonhee called out from the other end of the bus. “We have the karaoke microphone set up already!” Youngjo swore he saw Seoho frown and sigh deeply before energetically making his way over to the back. _Gotcha._

Just as he left and the bus started moving, Geonhak’s eyes blinked open in confusion. “Where’s Seoho?”

“He’s at the back with the others. Go back to sleep, you need the rest.”

“I was planning on asking him now though…” he frowned, eyebrows crinkling in disappointment. 

Youngjo sighed, “Dude you’re tired. You can always ask him another time, remember? Don’t half ass it and stumble over your words while you haven’t fully rested from today’s activities yet.” Geonhak nodded in agreement, without much fight in him, repeating the ‘another time’ before falling back to sleep.

Youngjo really started to feel bad for Geonhak at that point. After four failed attempts of trying to ask Seoho out, he had to commend him for even having the energy to try and try again, even if every attempt so far didn’t get him anywhere.

He unlocked his phone to see a few new texts from Hwanwoong, who was also at the back of the bus, monitoring Seoho and the two. 

_Hwanwoong_

_[ He’s so sulky and down right now… ]_

_[ What did you do?? ]_

_[ I haven’t seen him this cranky since he lost his pepe bag for like a week in the office ]_

_Youngjo_

_[ The one that Geonhak found in the storage room? ]_

_[ Yeah and did you SEE how happy he was when he found it? ]_

_[ He looked ready to smooch Geonhak’s face off if you asked me ]_

_[ TMI… ]_

_[ But you remember how we’ve been talking about how Seoho’s been all smiles the happiest boy in the world whenever he and Geonhak come back from a lunch out? ]_

_[ Yeah like the pepe bag situation happy ]_

_[ I wanted to see what would happen if I took his seat ]_

_[ That’s it??????? You TOOK HIS SEAT and now he’s all pouty ? ]_

_[ :OOOO ]_

_[ Is that what I think I smell? ]_

_[ it has to be jealousy or something WHAT ELSE can it be?? ]_

_[ I KNEW IT ]_

_[ I need to tell the other two oh my god ]_

_[ We’re best friends with two idiots… ]_

_[ To be fair, Geonhak doesn’t notice anything different with Seoho’s behavior with him ]_

_[ Probably because he’s too clouded by his feelings for him lol ]_

_[ Yeah but Seoho hasn’t even realized that Geonhak’s been trying to ask him out FOR. MONTHS. ]_

_[ Then he goes off and acts like this when I just sat next to him pls,,, I’m tired,,,]_

_[ Oh no ]_

_[ Should we do something? ]_

_[ No… ]_

_[ We can’t confirm it anyways ]_

_[ Maybe Seoho’s just a clingy best friend ]_

_[ If that’s all he is and he reject’s Geonhak’s confession then he’s getting a beating from me fr ]_

_[ Youngjo we still have to work with him ,,,, Don’t hurt him ]_

_[ Ugh fine. ]_

_[ I’ll let Geonhak man up when he’s ready to I guess ]_

_[ ah, young love... ]_

**● 5** ●

It had been at least 2 months since the text exchange between Youngjo and Hwanwoong and they were _this close_ to giving up on the two. 

Geonhak was really bad at the whole confession thing. He had already tried at least 4 times, each attempt getting a little more planned out and a little more public than the previous try, and all ending in huge failures.

At this point, he was just _tired._

Seoho noticed _none_ of his hints, nor did he ever pick up on his words as something other than an activity as friends, and he was ready to just give up. The rest of the group at that point changed from being supportive and now started taking pity on him. Keonhee and Dongju had suggested planning a big stunt to confess to him, since he never noticed the more subtle actions, and Hwanwoong even offered to choreograph a mob dance with everyone on their floor just for him, but Geonhak was having none of it. 

He really didn’t want to make it such a big deal in the first place, which is why all of his tries were attempts at being nonchalant and chill. Seoho was his best friend. They talked every single day, went out for lunch and played games together every weekend without fail. He liked their current relationship, and he didn’t want an elaborate grand confession to change what they already had going on, in the event that ~~his feelings weren’t reciprocated~~ he just wanted to stay friends. 

So even if he promised the rest of the group that he would eventually ask Seoho out after the team building, he hadn’t gotten around to do it yet. 

In his mind, Seoho’s density about the situation may have been a sign. Maybe him not seeing his other attempts was a warning to Geonhak. _Don’t do it, it won’t end well._

Youngjo, on the other hand, had had enough of Geonhak’s fleeting around. 

He was tired of seeing one of his best buds defeated like that, settling for sitting in their friendzone of an office cubicle and pining in the midst of their daily arguments.

“Today.” he firmly stated, swivelling Geonhak’s chair to face him. Seoho hadn’t arrived yet, so he decided to confront him while he had time. “You’ll man up and do it today. Just tell him you like him and you want to ask him out. No more chit chat, no more grand schemes, no more worries. You can fucking do it man.”

Geonhak gulped, running a hand through his hair in nervousness. “But—”

“No buts. You can do it, I know you can.” he smiled, leaving Geonhak to emotionally prepare himself for Seoho’s arrival. 

“Good morning everyone!” a cheerful voice yelled throughout the floor, as footsteps approached his cubicle. 

_Speak of the devil_. 

“Good morning, baby chick! Lovely morning we’re having, isn’t it?” Geonhak scoffed, rolling his eyes at the dumb nickname, but heart skipping a beat over the fact that he had a special nickname in the first place, no matter how stupid if sounded. 

“It was better before you walked in.”

“Oh, shut it, we all know you can’t resist me.” _Well, he’s not wrong_. Geonhak thought. “You mean resist punching you in the face? Yeah I can’t, you got me.”

The elder chuckled and sat down without another word, both of them turning around to their monitors. 

Geonhak couldn’t bring himself to start working though. He took a breath and turned back around to face Seoho...who had swivelled around to face him too. 

“Hey I—”

“Hak, there somethin—” he cut off. 

Geonhak’s eyes widened and his heart started pumping hard and fast, but he nodded to the elder to go ahead. “I have something to tell you.” he spoke. “I was supposed to tell you over the weekend but, I thought it was better to tell you in person.” 

“Yeah? What’s so important?”

The now black haired man nervously rubbed the back of his neck, looking down. “I got a promotion.” 

His heart rate suddenly slammed on the breaks. _What?_ “You what?”

“Well, it’s kind of a promotion? Or a position change? They’re moving me to a different part of the office in one of the closed off office rooms around this floor I think...but I’m going to make my transfer soon.” Seoho carefully explained, eyes still firmly planted on the floor. 

He was pretty sure he could hear something cracking. Ah yes, it was his heart. “Wow...I am so happy for you, Seoho.” The elder slowly raised his head, meeting Geonhak’s eyes with a soft smile. “Thanks. I’m going to miss this little cubicle a lot though.”

“What about me? I might find you crawling back here from your new desk because you can’t handle not seeing this face everyday.”

Seoho snorted back, smacking him on the arm relieving the air of tension. “You mean I won’t have to argue with a baby chick who sounds like he’s constantly on sulfur hexafluoride everyday? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.” 

“Hey you still have to deal with this voice online, you aren’t escaping me that easily!” Geonhak pushed him back, throwing them into a fit of chuckles.

It was a lot to take in. 

Seoho was going to move to a new office, meaning Geonhak would be alone in their—no, it was now _his_ cubicle. No more office banter, arguments and spontaneous lunch dates unless they agreed on a fixed time, but even then, Geonhak decided that he didn’t want to be too much of a bother since Seoho would probably be working on different projects, maybe harder and more stressful than what they originally dealt with.

Then it clicked. This promotion was the sign. 

He wouldn’t confess. _Five times was definitely too many._

Suddenly a finger flicked his forehead, bringing him out of his thoughts. “You’re spacing out, Geonhak. Didn’t you say you had something to tell me a while ago?”

Geonhak paled. _So much for not saying anything._ “Huh? Oh no yeah, it was just about how happy I am for you, new position and all that. Yeah that’s all.” 

“You sure?” he leaned forward, trying to look deeper into Geonhak’s eyes, and as much as it made his brain turn into mush, he had to _calm the fuck down_ before he spilled and Seoho caught on that _no_ he didn’t get to say what he meant to say. 

Geonhak quickly nodded, “Mhm mhm, yep, that’s all. You should tell the others, I’ll get back to work now...” He turned back around, releasing a shaky sigh, conflicting thoughts and emotions buzzing around as he mindlessly clicked around his monitor.

_So much for manning up, Kim Geonhak._

After trying countless times for the past few months, this failure was definitely the most painful one yet…. and at this point, he had to wonder if his feelings were still worth fighting for if all the signs pointed him to straight up rejection. 

**● +1** ●

The weeks following Seoho’s transfer were pretty normal. Geonhak’s routine never really changed, he and Seoho still went out for lunch at least once a week, and their emails and text messages were filled with the banters and arguments they would normally have in person, but now laced with selfies and other photos they would send each other, _“since we don’t see each other face to face that often anymore”_ as Seoho claimed one time. 

Luckily, their relationship barely changed one bit. They were still the best of friends, possibly even closer since Seoho would insist on extending their weekend video game nights by a few hours just so they could catch up more. 

(Geonhak sometimes wondered why he never just asked Seoho out through their gaming sessions, but it would have thrown them both off their game and it kinda was already too late for that now wasn’t it…)

Among things that haven’t changed were his feelings for the elder.

Even if he had completely given up on confessing to Seoho and asking him out, the affections he felt were still there and still going strong, showing no signs of fading away.

At that point, he had learned to accept the feelings of just pining for the elder, and being happy for the relationship they had now as best friends, rather than ruin it over pouring his heart out and making himself look like a fool for the man who probably didn’t feel the same way. Of course, every time the elder smiled at him his heart still went nuts and every photo sent to him made his insides crack a little more, but he would never tell him that. 

Geonhak was a strong guy.

With a weak heart reserved for a Lee Seoho only.

And Geonhak was okay with it staying like that. 

.

.

But his friends...clearly were not. 

“Geonhak-ah, how many times do we have to tell you?” Keonhee slammed his hands down on their table, attracting a few looks from the other customers in the restaurant. “Won’t you just confess to him so you can finally move on?”

Dongju nodded in agreement. “At this point, it’s not a matter of if he likes you back or not, but we just hate seeing you all happy at work to be all sulky when you’re back home.”

“I’m not sulky...I’m fine being best friends with him guys, just because I’ve accepted it, it doesn’t mean my feelings for him have to go away.”

“Have you ever thought to consider how you would feel if you saw him, let’s say flirting with someone else?” Hwanwoong suddenly inquired, waving a napkin in his face. “Buying them a coffee, or going out with them for _dinner_ after work, instead of just lunch?”

“Nothing!”

Everyone looked at him with blank expressions, like they didn’t believe him. 

“It’s none of my business to learn about his lovelife, I’ll let him tell me about it when he feels like it.”

To be honest, even Geonhak didn’t believe the words he said, but he tried not to dwell on it too much for the rest of the day.

At night however, that conversation was all Geonhak could think about.

It was as if someone ripped off the band-aid to the Seoho shaped wound he was hiding from and letting it hurt all over again. And boy, did those late night thoughts hurt. A lot. He’d almost completely accepted his one sided affections for Seoho, but eventually, the elder would find someone he liked the same way Geonhak liked him and he was not prepared for that situation to happen just yet. 

●

He didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. The thoughts rushing around his head kept him up until the wee hours of the morning, no matter how hard he tried to shut them off and go to sleep.

Because of this, he was groggier and feeling a little more down than normal, already dreading the entire work day while he slowly walked out of the elevator onto his floor. Anyone who knew Geonhak knew that it was best to just leave him be until he regained the energy, or else he would just be a tired cranky mess that no one wanted to deal with. 

He slumped onto his chair with a huff moving to turn on his monitor, until he noticed a red beverage gingerly sitting beside his mouse. He stared at it for a few moments, wondering if he had accidentally left a drink on his desk the day before, but the condensation on the side of the cup proved that it was a new drink.

_Did someone misplace this?_

He slowly peeked over his desk, looking around the cubicles to see if anyone was glancing at him or was watching for his reaction, but no one was. Confused, he turned the cup around to see the familiar logo of the office cafe staring at him, with a small note taped alongside it.

 _“Good morning Geonhak! I know you don’t like coffee so I got you this watermelon shake instead!_ _♡”_

Now he was even more confused. 

None of his friends had told him about a drink that morning, (nor did he think any of them would end their messages in hearts) and although a bit taken aback, he was also touched at whoever gave him the drink, bad mood quickly lifting as he savored the freshness and coolness of the watermelon shake, giving him a little energy boost he needed from a lack of sleep. 

Before going to work, he sent out a text message with an attached photo of the partially consumed shake and the note to their office friends group chat.

_[ Did any of you guys leave this for me? If so, thank you! ]_

What followed were short replies from the five, Dongju claiming he would never spend money in the morning for Geonhak, Hwanwoong cringing at the note, Keonhee asking to come over to his desk to let him sip, Youngjo asking if it was from an admirer and Seoho just sending a shocked face emoji, followed by a questioning if it was safe to take drinks from anonymous strangers. 

_Seoho: [ What if it was a trap laced with poison? ]_

_Hwanwoong: [ Ah he’s just jealous no one ever gave him a free drink in the morning before ]_

_Youngjo: [ 👀 no one ever? Really now??? ]_

_[ Mmm what if someone did and I just drank it before you arrived ]_

(Which honestly in Geonhak’s opinion, wasn’t that far from the truth…)

_Seoho: [ YOU WOULDNT ]_

_Dongju: [ FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT ]_

_Keonhee: [ Yah stop texting get back to work or else our boss might see us ]_

Geonhak chuckled, turning his screen off and getting back to work, happily sipping from the watermelon shake and taping the note to the corner of his monitor before it got soaked in the condensation. If the little hearts at the end of the message were the reasons for his better mood, then no one had to know. 

Halfway through the day, as Geonhak was engrossed with a file he had to edit through, a sudden yell of “Geonhak!” shocked him out of his trance. Seoho’s head then popped over the cubicle wall with a grin. “Hi!”

“Hey.” 

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments, Geonhak frozen in his chair, and Seoho just being all smiley like he normally was. “Do you need anything?” he asked, breaking eye contact, before he got all nervous again. 

“Mmm, no not really.” the elder smiled, walking around to stand behind him, looking at the work on his monitor. “You’ve been working so hard recently, Youngjo said you looked really tired this morning.”

“Ah.” _Just from thinking about you, but you know, no big deal._ “I just had a late night. The watermelon shake helped out a lot, though.” 

He felt Seoho pat him on the back and ruffle his hair a little bit, and he didn’t even bother to fix it. “Give yourself a break, you’ve been working so hard recently, Hak.” 

He sighed, looking back and forth between the monitor and Seoho, with an uncertain look. “But my work…”

“C’mon, let’s go out and get lunch. My turn to pay for us.”

At the sound of free food, Geonhak quickly nodded and turned off the monitor, grabbing his jacket and phone. The elder, unfazed, just laughed and turned to the elevator, talking about the restaurants they could visit around the block that they haven’t been to yet. 

As they were walking, Geonhak even caught the eye of Keonhee who was sending him a mischievous grin, and a thumbs up at the two of them leaving together. “Yah, aren’t you inviting us to eat with you?” he called out. 

“No thanks, Geonhak’s the only one who deserves a free meal!” Seoho yelled back with no hesitation. If the thought of them going out for lunch didn’t make Geonhak’s ears flush, then that statement may have just done it. 

When they were outside the building, Geonhak couldn't help but feel a sense of _deja vu_ while they walked around the block. There was a sensation in his chest, he couldn’t quite point out yet, but he was just glad he could spend some time out having lunch with Seoho without having anything to worry about besides his flush that he couldn’t seem to get rid of.

●

At the end of the day, Geonhak was completely spent. The watermelon shake and lunch with Seoho definitely urged him to finish the day without passing out, and he wouldn’t have been able to survive without them. Right at that moment, however, Geonhak wanted nothing more but to drag himself back home and fall asleep to catch up on all the hours of rest he missed the night before. 

The strong sounds of thunder suddenly rumbled throughout the floor, as he turned to see the clouds increasingly get dark, threatening to downpour at any second. 

_Fuck_ . _I didn’t bring an umbrella_. 

He hastily turned to the rest of the cubicles to find any of his friends to ask for an umbrella or a ride home, but everyone had already left the room, their shift ending over an hour prior to the signs of rain. 

Geonhak groaned loudly, echoing all around the floor. “How am I going to get home in the storm?!” he yelled in frustration. 

“Geonhak? Is that you?” a voice called out. 

He whipped his head around to see Seoho looking at him with a worried expression, holding his bag and jacket in hand. “You’re still here.” the elder stated, rather than questioned. 

“Yeah.” he sighed in reply, dragging his hand down his face. “I didn’t check the time, and when the rain started up, everyone else was already gone.”

He didn’t mean to sound so _defeated_ , but not only was he tired, but he was _alone_ with Seoho. Again. No matter what, the world really wanted to make sure they were joined at the hip.

He did not mentally prepare himself for an after work interaction with the elder, but all he needed to do was be chill and relaxed, and nothing would slip. 

He didn’t realize it but suddenly Seoho was standing really close to him, eye-ing him with a certain look Geonhak couldn’t point out. Neither of them spoke a word for those few moments as Seoho stared and he couldn’t help but stare back. 

The latter gulped, a bead of sweat dripping down the back of his neck. “Uh...Seoho?”

“Go out with me.” the elder softly smiled, not even breaking eye contact for a second.

_What._

“What?” 

“Will you go out with me?” he asked again.

A light bulb flickered on in his brain as Geonhak was reminded of where the deja vu from earlier all came from. He recalled the time when he had asked Seoho out to lunch, only to quickly retract his statement out of fear and nervousness that Seoho would say no. 

They were in the exact same position as they were those months ago.

But now Seoho was asking _him_ , not the other way around. 

_Is this real?_

He remembered the words he had said when he backtracked then. “LIke...to eat dinner?”

“Yeah. LIke on a date, Geonhak.” 

_Oh._ “A date?”

Lee Seoho. Was asking him out. To a date. 

Geonhak’s head was spiralling. “Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Seoho inquired, tilting his head in wonder. “Geonhak, I like you. Like, more than a best friend, like you.”

“I...I like you too. For a while, actually.” He did it. He finally did it and confessed to Seoho. Not only that but, the elder _liked him back_.

Seoho laughed, eyes sparkling with a newfound joy in them. “Yeah...I heard.”

Geonhak’s eyes suddenly widened in shock. “You, what? Where did you hear that?”

“Youngjo told me a few days ago but...I didn't want to believe it unless I heard you tell me yourself.” The elder grabbed his hand and swung it playfully back and forth. “I can’t believe you tried to tell me like five times, and I didn’t even know. You musta sucked at confessing huh?” 

“He told you that too? Yah, you shouldn’t have bought that hot chocolate one time, I was supposed to give you the fruit shake I had!” Geonhak pointed out, “I even wrote on the side of the cup but you ruined it and I couldn’t give it to you…”

“I know! And I felt really bad when the others told me about it and how you were so sulky so I gave you the shake this morning…”

“ _You_ were the one who left it for me?”

“Duh! Who else would? Wow, I didn’t even get a thank you, I bought you a drink, paid for our lunch and asked you out for dinner and I got nothing? Sheesh, why do I even like you in the first placeー”

“Yah, Lee Seoho I had to go through months of failed confessions because you didn’t see any of them, I should be getting mad at you!!!” 

Their argument was then interrupted by another crash of thunder, the rain smashing against the windows, visibility down to a low from all of the dark clouds. “So...dinner?”

●

“I got four out of five, you should be grateful!!” Seoho spat out, as the two of them walked back to the lobby of their building to grab their bags after dinner. The two were arguing _again_ over how Seoho tried to replicate all of the ways Geonhak tried to confess to him to make it up to him. “How am I even going to confess to you with a water gun, I’m not waiting for another year just to confess to you on our next team building!”

Geonhak scoffed. “Be creative, I had to go through _months_ of waiting for you!”

He then looked out onto the street in front of them empty of people who have taken refuge in other buildings and shops, the rain still pouring strong and hard late into the night, and water flowing down the pavements, forming little pools at divots in the path. “I know how you can do it.” he swiftly added, pulling Seoho’s arm before he walked into the building. 

“Oh really?” the elder genuinely looked shocked. “How?”

“LIke this.” he grinned back, firmly shoving him right into the pouring rain, laughing as Seoho swiftly got soaked in the rain and fell onto his butt, landing straight into a large puddle of water. 

“Kim Geonhak!! My suit!” 

“You can try confessing to me now, I think we have the setting down pretty accurately.”

The elder stayed quiet for a few moments with his mouth agape, the rain not showing any signs of stopping, as Geonhak stood waiting right at the edge of the shaded area of the building. He saw him mumble something, but he couldn’t understand anything due to the noise of the rain. 

“What did you say?”

“Lean closer so you can hear me!” he spoke louder.

Nodding, he slowly leaned forward, bending down as far as he could without letting the raindrops touch him, anticipating the elder’s confession. 

All of a sudden, a wet hand gripped his arm, tugging him out into the pouring rain, making him fall over the elder’s body, just shy from crushing him completely. Now he too was getting doused with the rainpour, clothes immediately soaked as Seoho laughed at his shocked expression over everything that had happened in the span of a few seconds. 

“I won again.” the elder grinned, leaning to close Geonhak’s mouth from its stunned look and softy landing a peck on his lips. A warmth instantly spread from Geonhak’s lips all over his body even if the two of them were sitting in the middle of the pouring rain, shivering from the cold. 

_No_. He thought, as the two of them burst into laughter over the absurdity of their situation. 

Seoho may have triumphed in the game, but Geonhak _finally_ scored the guy he’s been pining over for ages.

If it took him five tries for the two of them to end up together like that, he wouldn’t hesitate to try over and over and over again. 

_I definitely won this time._

Point to Geonhak.

**Author's Note:**

> I love writing Seodo, their relationship dynamic really is the best...I can write them arguing ALL DAY 💕
> 
> I kinda like science too, so if you didn't understand the science references, I'm so sorry,,, but here's a short guide!
> 
> H2O = dihydrogen oxide = water!  
> H2O2 = hydrogen peroxide = a colorless and unstable liquid commonly used in diluted form in disinfectants and bleaches! (hence why it's dangerous)  
> sulfur hexafluoride = SF6 = it's a very dense gas with a density of 6.17 kg/m³ and it's essentially the opposite of helium (He) at 0.178*10^-3 g.cm^-3. so instead of making your voice really high, when you inhale it, it becomes really really low. 
> 
> that's all for the mini science lesson! I really hope you enjoyed the fic! hmu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/mydnightashes) if you want 💙💙💙


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